STAT Dec Refused at TEC

[morphster]

Hey Guys,

 

Just some of advice please folks. Got a NTO from local council some time ago. Naturally I appealed and heard no more about it. Next i hear is some 11 months later a baliff knocking on my door demanding £317 from me for the unpaid fine. I called the local council who state they'd sent 3 letters following on from my email appeal. They state as they'd sent it they wouldnt hold off action. I contacted National Debt Line and they told me to file an out of time stat dec to the TEC to which I duley did. Got a letter back today advising it has been refused. No reason as to why just refused. What happens from here as the notes on the letter received back were not clear.

[Conniff]

I think I would spend a tenner doing a SAR and see if those letter were sent.

[Jamberson]

There's not a great deal you can do other than pay. You can contest the refusal by filing an N244. There's a charge - around £80. It entails a hearing in front of a local court officer to decide whether the council were justified in refusing it.

 

It boils down to this: The local authority will have sent out a reply to your appeal (so they say), followed by a Charge Certificate, then an Order for Recovery. Your position is that none of these documents reached you - and I presume they were not returned to the council undelivered (you could ask them).

 

If you feel confident that you could convince the officer that this is all true, then go for it. However, if he doesn't accept it, then you will lose the appeal, and be where you are today, less the costs of appealing in the first place.

[morphster]

How much will i have to pay? The full £317.

 

Even if i paid the £10 they would say sent the letters out wouldnt they

[Jamberson]

They will need evidence that they sent them. Best thing in my view is to phone them and check the name and address they sent them to was correct, and that they didn't have them returned to sender. If they sent them out to the correct name and address, is there some reason why they might not have got to you? eg, are you the only person at the address, were you living there at the time, etc?

[Conniff]

How much will i have to pay? The full £317.

 

Even if i paid the £10 they would say sent the letters out wouldnt they

 

They have to send you copies of everything.

[Jamberson]

To be honest, you don't need copies. You need to know when they were sent and where to. The documents themselves are just standard things with your name and address printed in the corner. They can run off new copies any time - that's not what you need. You need details of how they were addressed.

[green_and_mean]

They have to send you copies of everything.

 

There isn't a big cupboard with all the letters in they will just generate a new one off the computer, it will not be a copy. The way the system works its impossible to send a form out without the previous stage being done ie you would not be able to progress to charge certificate if you had not issued a NTO.